LITTLE ROCK — Q. I see everything on TV about Fashion Week for women, but does anything ever show up there for men?
A. Yes, some years it does, but not this time. This may not be the answer you were looking for, but I’ve rarely seen anything for men that compares with Fashion Week for women. I recently attended New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011, where, of course, most of the shows consisted of women’s designs and only a few featured men’s wear.
I saw a lot of interesting, and some truly beautiful, clothes for women. But of the shows I attended, I must admit that it was hard to discover anything even slightly special resembling a new direction for men. I tend to be opinionated, but that’s my job, and sorry to say, this is what I often see. It was difficult to find anything that the typical well-dressed man might want to own or wear. Because there are so few new ideas in how to dress for business, the contents of most of the men’s shows were based on casual wear.
But even the casual wear did not have much appeal. Everything was olive, beige, gray, black or white - for spring, mind you! But color (or rather the lack of it) was not the big problem. The major problem was that not much looked special. It looked like somethingthat - if the guy in a woman’s life wore it - she would ask him to please put something else on. These clothes could only be thought of as “fashion” because they were being worn by good-looking models on a fashion show runway. On a normal guy, they’d look like back-of-the-closet weekend attire.
Pants included long shorts and leggings (yes, for men!), nothing special, attractive or particularly wearable. I can understand wearing the shorts (except when they showed them with sport coats), but when and where would a man wear leggings?Tops were slouchy, drapey knits in T-shirts, Henleys and cardigans with no shape. (I guess what one can draw from this is that soft fabrics and no stiff tailoring is what we will be seeing next year.) Shoes included a lot of flipflops and other super-casual footwear. The only stylish men’s designs that stood out enough to notice were some short leather jackets with asymmetrical/diagonal closings, either zippered or buttoned. But that was about it. Disappointing for everyone, but especially for someone who writes about men’s clothes.
The printed program (or what is called the “run-ofshow”) provided at each show included fancy terminology such as this description of one designer as a “roguish American icon with a Brit edge.” It went on to say that he “disregards the universal monotony black and grays that dominate men’s wear. He instead infuses earthtone colors with muted blues.” In other words, same old, same old.
So, a question may be whether designers are saying that these casual clothes should be worn for business; that answer is “no.” Another question is “Can you get away with wearing the best of your clothes for another year?” That answer is “yes.” Beyond that, I wish I had something better or more interesting to report, but maybe next season.
Perhaps you might try shopping in your closet; women do it all the time.
Q. You recently wrote about men’s colored pocket squares. But I am wondering about wearing a white handkerchief in the breast pocket of a man’s suit. How is this done?
A. As I have written before, a silk pocket square is usually worn folded with the pointsup or else softly puffed with the center up. But recently I keep seeing a lot of the newly popular way of wearing an actual white handkerchief in the breast pocket (as opposed to the more colorful silk pocket square). The way I see most of them folded is a look that I do not like.
Many men’s magazines and fashion photos show a precisely folded and pressed (into a square) white handkerchief that is tucked into a man’s breast pocket so only a small straight horizontal line of white cloth shows. I understand that just tucking a handkerchief that is ironed flat into a pocket is easier than arranging it artistically. This is especially true with linen, which is a very stiff fabric. But this flat look seems far too rigid and starchy to me, not to mention that it shows a lack of imagination.
This new flat style probably came about because a man’s white linen handkerchief is quite stiff and large (usually about 16 inches square). It can sometimes become too bulky in a breast pocket when folded in the “points up” style that works so easily with silk pocket squares.
To solve this small problem, some clever manufacturers now make lighter cotton handkerchiefs in a smaller size (12 inches square). Fine haberdashery shops, such as Paul Stuart, have a range of white handkerchiefs, costing as little as a very affordable$9 up to a fine Italian import at $60.
If you are using a white handkerchief, rather than a colored silk square, I definitely prefer the “points up” method of folding. But do be careful to place the points up in a rather neat - but nottoo precisely perfect - way. Avoid the perfect picket fence look. Sometimes it takes a lot of care and attention to appear nonchalantly welldressed.
Send your questions for Male Call to:
lois.fenton@prodigy.net
High Profile, Pages 52 on 09/26/2010